Kevin Murray demonstrates the Standing Hip Hinge

Photograph by: Bruce Edwards
, Edmonton Journal

“It gives me so much insight into dysfunction,” he explains, “what may or may not be moving the way it’s supposed to.”

Everything you’ve ever done to your body, every ankle strain, every injury minor or major, affects the way you move.

“The body is brilliant because it can compensate. For example, if I have a pebble in my shoe and it hurts, I can still get from point A to point B, so it’s great that it compensates, but it’s also crappy because it compensates.

“Little problems compact over time until one day they end up being a big boo-boo, that can cause an inordinate amount of pain,” says Murray, a sessional instructor with the personal fitness training program at NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology), and an expert on easing pain with corrective exercises.

In the second of four weeks of Fitness Tips related to pain, Murray demonstrates an exercise that is a progression from the Knee Pillow Squeezes and Knee Strap Presses he introduced last week to relax the hip and pelvis and sacroliliac joint.

As with any exercise, you have to change up what you’re doing or it stops working, he explains.

Standing Hip Hinge

Stand with feet hip-width apart and pointing straight ahead. Place hands on the back of your pelvis, just above your buttocks, so that the thumbs are pointing down. The rest of your fingers should be resting on the upper buttocks and pointing towards the floor.

Gently try to squeeze your elbows together and hold. Keeping a slight arch in your lower back, bend forward and hinge from the hip joints.

Bend only as far forward as you can without losing the arch in your lower back, and without your knees bending (they can be slightly off-lock).

Shift the weight foward to the balls of your feet and be cautious not to put too much weight into just your heels. Hold for the recommended duration. You could potentially feel a stretch in your calves and hamstrings (back of the legs).

The purpose of this corrective exercise is to engage the deep longitudinal system and lengthen the hamstrings and calves, while being upright and loaded by gravity, and while simultaneously stabilizing the sacroiliac joint and lumbar spine (low back) from above, Murray says.

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